This presentation covers two teaching strategies that will assist in the shift from standardized testing to Common Core Performance Tasks.

1. Providing the Spark
Providing the Spark
for CCSS
for CCSS
Performance Based Assessments
Performance Based Assessments
VS
VS
Problem Based Learning
Problem Based Learning

2. Our Purpose Today…
Discuss strategies that relate to the implementation
of CCSS Performance Tasks
Describe Performance-Based Tasks and Models
Describe Problem-Based Learning and Models
Sum up how these two teaching techniques lead to
CCSS “Student Generated Discoveries”

3. CCSS Performance Tasks
As part of the CCSS Assessment, students in grades
3-12 will complete up to 5 performance tasks each year.
These tasks will:
-measure complex assessment targets
-demonstrate ability to think and reason
-require higher-order thinking skills
-allow for multiple approaches for collecting evidence of a student’s
knowledge and abilities
-use real-world contexts
-integrate knowledge and skills
-measure understanding, research skills, analysis, and the ability to
provide relevant evidence
-require students to plan, write, edit, and revise their results

4. Setting the Stage
for
Performance-Based
Assessment
Tasks, Projects, &
Assessments That Change Learning
Spark Learning Solutions LLC

5. Contents
Overview
 Steps of Design
 Rubrics/Templates
 Resources

6. Performance-Assessment:
What’s It All About?
If you are like most teachers, it probably is a common practice for
you to devise some sort of test to determine whether a previously
taught concept has been learned before introducing something new
to your students. Probably, this will be either a completion or
multiple choice test. However, it is difficult to write completion or
multiple choice tests that go beyond the recall level. For example,
the results of an English test may indicate that a student knows
each story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. However, these
results do not guarantee that a student will write a story with a clear
beginning, middle, and end. Because of this, educators have
advocated the use of performance-based assessments.
Brualdi, Amy (1998). Implementing performance assessment in the classroom.
Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 6(2). Retrieved April 23, 2010 from
http://PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=6&n=2

7. So What is Performance-Based
Assessment (PBA)?
▪Performance-based assessments "represent a set of
strategies for the . . . application of knowledge, skills, and
work habits through the performance of tasks that are
meaningful and engaging to students."
▪ This type of assessment provides teachers with
information about how a student understands and applies
knowledge.
▪ Also, teachers can integrate performance-based
assessments into the instructional process to provide
additional learning experiences for students.

8. Examples of Performance
Tasks/Projects
*Art work *Inventions *Notebooks *Problems solving
*Cartoons *Websites *Oral reports *Puppet shows
*Collections *Journals *Original plays, stories, dances
*Reading selection *Designs and drawings
*Letters
*Pantomimes *Recipes *Documentary reports *Maps

9. Examples of Performance
Tasks/Projects
* Performance,
musical instrument *Scale models
*Experiments *Model construction *Poetry recitations
*Story illustrations
*Foreign language activities *Musical compositions
*Photos *Story boards *Games
*Musical scores *Plans for inventions *Performances
*Graphic Organizers

10. Examples of Performance
Tasks/Projects
Learning Menus

11. Performance
Based Assessment
 Overview
Steps of Design
 Rubrics/Templates
 Resources

12. Step 1: Define a Purpose
In order to administer any good assessment, you
must have a clearly defined purpose. So, you must
ask yourself several important questions:
▪ What concept, skill, or knowledge am I trying to
assess? (The Standards)
▪ What should my students know? What outcomes
am I looking for?
▪ At what level should my students be performing?
▪ What type of knowledge is being assessed
By answering these questions, you can decide what
type of activity best suits you assessment needs.

13. Step 2:
Choose an Activity
After you define the purpose of the
assessment, you can make decisions
concerning the activity.
There are some things that you must
take into account before you choose the
activity: time constraints, availability of
resources in the classroom, and how
much data is necessary in order to make
an informed decision about the quality of
a student's performance.

14. Step 3: Define the
Criteria
▪ Identify the overall performance or task to be assessed,
and perform it yourself or imagine yourself performing it
▪ List the important aspects of the performance or product.
▪ Try to limit the number of performance criteria, so they
can all be observed during a pupil's performance.
▪ If possible, have groups of teachers think through the
important behaviors included in a task.
▪ Express the performance criteria in terms of observable
pupil behaviors or product characteristics.
▪ Don't use ambiguous words that cloud the meaning of the
performance criteria.
▪ Arrange the performance criteria in the order in which
they are likely to be observed.

15. Step 4: Create Rubrics
As opposed to most traditional forms of testing, performance-based
assessments do not have clear-cut right or wrong answers.
Rather, there are degrees to which a person is successful or
unsuccessful.
Thus, you need to evaluate the performance in a way that will allow
you take those varying degrees into consideration.
This can be accomplished by creating rubrics.
A rubric is a rating system by which teachers can determine at what
level of proficiency a student is able to perform a task or display
knowledge of a concept. With rubrics, you can define the different
levels of proficiency for each criterion.

16. Step 5:
Assess the Performance
Using this information, you can give feedback on a student's performance
either in the form of a narrative report or a grade. There are several
different ways to record the results of performance-based assessments:
▪ Checklist Approach When you use this, you only have to indicate
whether or not certain elements are present in the performances.
▪ Narrative/Anecdotal Approach When teachers use this, they will write
narrative reports of what was done during each of the performances. From
these reports, teachers can determine how well their students met their
standards.
▪ Rating Scale Approach When teachers use this, they indicate to what
degree the standards were met. Usually, teachers will use a numerical
scale. For instance, one teacher may rate each criterion on a scale of one
to five with one meaning "skill barely present" and five meaning "skill
extremely well executed."

17. Resources
http://www.emtech.net/Alternative_Assessment.html
http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=6&n=2
http://web.bsu.edu/IRAA/AA/WB/chapter5.htm
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/
http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/rubrics.htm
http://www.tcet.unt.edu/START/instruct/general/rubrics.htm
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/assess.html
http://www.rubrician.com/
http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/rubrics.shtml
http://www.rubrics4teachers.com/
http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/assessment/readingassess.htm
http://fcit.usf.edu/assessment/performance/assessa.html

18. Providing the Spark
Providing the Spark
for CCSS
for CCSS
Problem Based Learning
Problem Based Learning

19. "The basic principle supporting the
"The basic principle supporting the
concept of PBL is older than formal
concept of PBL is older than formal
education itself; namely, learning is
education itself; namely, learning is
initiated by a posed problem, query,
initiated by a posed problem, query,
or puzzle that the learner wants to
or puzzle that the learner wants to
solve" (Duch, Groh, & Allen, 2001).
solve" (Duch, Groh, & Allen, 2001).

20. How do PrBLs & PBAs apply to CCSS?
• The CCSS explicitly calls for, and integrate, higher-
order thinking skills (PrBL) as a means to
achieving career and college readiness for all students.
• The CCSS documents establish critical thinking,
reasoning, communication and
media/information/technology literacy in ELA and
mathematics as a key performance outcomes (PBA)
around which curricula and assessments should be
focused.
Partnership for 21st Century Skills 2012

21. The Motivation to Learn Begins
with a Problem
In a problem-based learning (PBL) model, students
engage complex, challenging problems and
collaboratively work toward their resolution. PBL
is about students connecting disciplinary
knowledge to real-world problems—the
motivation to solve a problem becomes the
motivation to learn.

22. What is P(R)BL?
Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional
method that challenges students to "learn to
learn," working cooperatively in groups to seek
solutions to real world problems. These problems
are used to engage students' curiosity and
initiate learning the subject matter. PBL
prepares students to think critically and
analytically, and to find and use appropriate
learning resources.
-Barbara Duch

23. PBL overlaps with other
active learning models
such as group work and
case studies, but is
distinguished by the focus
on having students
delineate, research, and
solve a realistic problem.
Washington Department of Education

24. It's Not
New!
PrBL was pioneered in the medical
school program at McMaster University in
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in late 1960s by
Howard Barrows and his colleagues.
Traditional medical education disenchanted
students, who perceived the vast amount of
material presented in the first three years of
medical school as having little relevance to
the practice of medicine and
clinically based medicine.

25. Research says……
The three major complaints of
employers about college graduates
are the graduates poor written and
verbal skills, their inability to
problem-solve, and their difficulties
working collaboratively. PrBL can
address all three areas.
DeGallow & Grant, UCI

26. Research says…..cont.
Dochy and colleagues (2003) have found that,
although the students gain slightly less
knowledge, they retain more of the knowledge
acquired, the knowledge is better organized,
and the skills are immediate and lasting. This
increase in the learning of skills is supported by
Baker, McDaniel, Pesut, and Fisher's (2007)
research in which they found that students
engaged in PBL exceeded traditional students in
clinical knowledge, performance, and
satisfaction with program.

27. Why Use Problem-Based Learning
*PBL better prepares students to apply
their learning to real-world situations.
*PBL enables students to become producers,
rather than consumers, of knowledge.
*PBL can help students develop
communication, reasoning and critical
thinking skills.

28. Teacher’s Concerns……
** How do II get
How do get
started?
started?
** II am responsible for
am responsible for
teaching all of the
teaching all of the
standards. What
standards. What
about gerunds??
about gerunds??
And similes???
And similes???
Performance-Based
Performance-Based
Assessment can help!
Assessment can help!

29. How do I get started with PBL?
Develop problems that:
*Capture students’ interest by relating
to real-world issues.
*Draw on students’ previous learning
and experience.
*Integrate content objectives with
problem-solving skills. (Science, SS)
*Require a cooperative, multi-staged
method to solve.
Washington Department of Education

30. Develop Problems Continued
*Necessitate that students do some
independent research to gather all
information relevant to the problem.
*Design assessment tools that:
*Account for process (e.g. research,
collaboration) as well as content skills.
*Are closely tied to course learning
objectives.
*Balance individual and group
performance.
Washington Department of Education

31. What instructors do:
*Develop real-world, complex and open-ended
problems such as might be faced in the
workplace or daily life.
*Act as facilitators, making sure students are
staying on track and finding the resources
they need.
*Raise questions to student groups that
deepen the connections they make among
concepts.
*Strike a balance between providing direct
guidance and encouraging self-directed
learning. Washington Department of Education

32. W students do:
hat
*Address the problem, identifying what they
need to learn in order to develop a
solution and where to look for
appropriate learning resources.
*Collaborate to gather resources, share and
synthesize their findings, and pose
questions to guide further learning tasks
for the group.
Washington Department of Education

33. Classroom Implementation
Varied Amount of Structure
Based on the age of the students some
whole group discussion may be
needed to solve the task.

34. Classroom
Implementation
*An entire course can be PBL based,
or PBL can be used for part of a given unit.
*Depending on your learning goals, it is possible
to design problems with a narrow range of
correct solutions or with a wider range of
creative possibilities.
*Though usually based in group work, PBL can
also have individualized components,
provided that students are required to come
together to discuss their findings.
Washington Department of Education

35. Procedures Within the Group
• Use group etiquette--concensus
• Discuss the problem: prior knowledge & ideas. The scribe
records all of the information.
• Decide what needs to be researched and who will do it.
Set a time to reconvene to discuss the research.
• Discuss & come to a consensus on a plan of action
• Work collaboratively to decide the end product the
group has selected.
• Share the results

36. How Do They Compare?
PBL PBA
Supports the 21st Century Gives teachers the means
Skills needed to support to build in mini-lessons
the Career Readiness to ensure the CCSS
Anchor Standards are taught
• Student centered • Group or individual tasks
• Problem drives the • Teacher sets the
learning expectations
• No one answer is correct • Students are assessed on
• Increased motivation application of
• Process-centered rather knowledge, skills and
work habits
than product-centered

37. A Happy Medium

38. Our Purpose Today…
Discuss strategies that relate to the implementation
of CCSS Performance Tasks
Describe Performance-Based Tasks and Models
Describe Problem-Based Learning and Models
Sum up how these two teaching techniques lead to
CCSS “Student Generated Discoveries”

39. For More Information…
CCSS Performance Tasks Training Module
(click below to watch module)

40. Website Gems
Pbln.imsa.edu/model/scenarios
Primary – Adult scenarios
Pbln.imsa.edu/model/problems/lunaar2
008/index.html
Lunar outpost,step by step, coaching
tips
Pbln.imsa.edu/model/problems/lunar20
08/led/shareinfo/index.html
templates

41. Website Gems 2
www.cotf.edu/ete/teacher/teacherout.html
Simplified model, distinguish between well structured
scenarios
Depts.washington.edu/cidrweb/Bulletin/PBL.html
Great info
Cte.umdnj.edu/active_learning/active_pbl.cfm
25 links
Dive10perspectives.asha.org/content/13/1/27.full
PBL Examples